While this invention is applicable to the treatment of many kinds of liquid, its principal usage will be in the field of water treatment in substantial installations, for example municipal and regional water supplies where the flow rate is on the order of at least about 500 gallons per minute, and generally much higher.
Treatment substances may be of any character, gas, liquid, or slurries. One well-known example is the use of ozone to treat water flowing through a large pipe often on the order of 48 inches in diameter. The object of this invention is to infuse the treatment substance (mass transfer) into the flowing stream in such arrangement and with such equipment that the treatment substance very quickly diffuses throughout substantially the entire cross-section of the flow. Thus a quick and reliable treatment is attained, without the need to “over-dose” the stream in order to be assured of a sufficiency throughout the treated liquid.
Very detailed analyses of flow patterns and distribution have been made to establish the effectiveness of this system.
Acceleration of mass transfer of a gas into a liquid is the subject of prior efforts, including some by the inventor herein. For example, in Mazzei U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,312 (the '312 patent) issued May 4, 2004 a liquid stream containing treatment gas emits from an aspirating injector into a collider. In this collider the total stream is split into two streams, which are combined in a collider chamber in which each split stream collides directly with the other, and the two streams continue as one to a point of use or storage.
Aspirating injectors (sometimes called “mixer injectors”) for use in the '312 patent and in this invention are fully disclosed in Mazzei U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,800, (the '800 patent) issued Oct. 31, 1978 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,128, issued Jan. 26, 1999 (the '128 patent).
An infusion nozzle useful in this invention is fully disclosed in Mazzei U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,995, issued Apr. 20, 1995 (the '995 patent).
The '312, '800, '128, and '995 patents are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference for their disclosures of structure, method and use as though presented herein in their entirety.
The '800 patent shows the essentials of an aspirating injector. It includes a constricting portion of decreasing diameter, an expanding portion of increasing diameter and between them a throat portion. A port discharges a treatment substance into the throat portion, which is at a lower pressure than its adjoining portions.
The walls of the portions in the '800 patent are smooth and uninterrupted. The corresponding walls in the '128 patent include vanes projecting inwardly from the walls. The vanes in the constructing portion give a twist to part of the stream, and vanes in the expanding portion straighten out the existing stream. These vanes are optional but preferred. Either construction is suitable for use in this invention.
The '995 patent shows a constricting nozzle with twisting vanes. This is preferred for this invention, but a constricting nozzle as shown in the '995 patent without the vanes, but identical otherwise, is within the scope of this invention.
It is an object of this invention to obtain an accelerated mass transfer of treatment substance into a flowing stream without the cost, complication, and energy loss caused by splitting and recombining the total stream.